Foreign direct investment in China dropped for the first time in three years
amid signs that the Asian economic giant is losing out to rival emerging
market economies.

Total FDI into the country was $111.7bn last year, according to figures released on Wednesday by China’s Ministry of Commerce, 3.7pc below the 2011 figure and the lowest level since the apex of the global crisis in 2009.

Conversely, Chinese investment abroad jumped 28.6pc from the year before to a record level of $77.2bn. The FDI figures suggested that Chinese investment abroad could soon outstrip inward investment from foreigners, reversing a trend that has prevailed for 20 years.

“Our target this year is... to try to keep foreign trade increasing at a rate that is roughly in accordance with GDP growth,” Shen Danyang, spokesman of the Ministry of Commerce, told reporters.

Beijing has set a target of 7pc average annual growth for the five years until 2015.